There were Americans who might have done this work in the 1960s. In today’s environment? Even if you offered $15 an hour, and needed twenty folks for four weeks of real work, I doubt that you’d get more than five or six. This is the kind of labor that you can’t easily find in this environment.
I grew up on a farm, and every year....we needed extra help for picking up hay. You’d have to offer a minimum of $10 an hour today, and it’s questionable that you’d find several kids who’d do this type of work.
Put prisoners to work.
Kids are not allowed by law to work on farms under 18, I think. Zero’s law.
I’m sure there are many rural people who, being unemployed, would work on a farm especially since meals are/were often included ... city dwellers not so much.
It is reasonable to expect to have to pay more than $15/hour for hard, physical, outdoor labor that only lasts for 4 weeks.
And $10 an hour is squat today.
I grew up on a farm as well. The availability of cheap, illegal labor has corrupted farmers in that they have actually allowed their jobs to become less and less appealing over time, when the rest of the world has had to up its game. Many farms themselves have become less appealing when they should have become more so. Look at the conditions many animals are now raised in.
American students are still prime candidates to do seasonal farm labor if the opportunities are structured right.
Of course normal Americans would do the work, if the wages actually cut it for them.
Take away life long welfare payouts.
You’d be surprised what people will eventually do for food/survivorship....most will actually end up doing something called work.
It may take a decade, or so, to get “career” welfare folks off the OPM drug, but, eventually they’d come around and even have an added benefit....self pride for a job well done.